Summary: The 3rd Servant Sermon teaches that obedient & faithful life is centered on obeying God’s Word. Through all the darkness & suffering the Servant holds to God’s trustworthiness. Then this Servant invites God’s disciples to trust God & walk in His Word.

Following God’s declaration that He will deliver His people from their transgressions and rebellions begins the third (42:1-9 & 49:1-7) Servant Sermon in Isaiah. This obedient and faithful Servant’s life is centered on obeying God’s Word. The Servant’s obedience to God leads to physical and emotional suffering. Yet through it all the Servant holds to God’s trustworthiness. Then this Servant invites God’s disciples to trust God and walk in His Word even in the darkness.

God’ disciples are to receive instruction daily. Even in periods of darkness, the disciple is to submit to the suffering (hardships such as lashings and insults) encountered because of his faithfulness to God (unlike the rebellious ones spoken of in 30:8-14). This faithful disciple receives God’s strengthening in and through his suffering (for YAHWEH is there to help).

I. IN-DEPTH DISCIPLESHIP, 4-6.

II. ENCOURAGEMENT TO CONTINUE, 7-9.

III. HOPE OR WARNING, 10-11.

Verse 4 gives a especial function and the sustenance of the Servant. The LORD God has given Me the tongue of disciples (or the learned), that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

The Servant was to declare God’s Word to the world but first the Servant had to have a sustaining word from the LORD. He had such a word because each morning He listened to God’s Word for a fresh word. It is God’s holy Word that sustains the weary. God trains us to minister His Word through thoughtful daily meditation on His Word. A disciple is one intimately acquainted with the master and has learned what the master knows. The disciple learns from the master through the crucible of life.

These words are written prophetically about the Lord Jesus. “The tongue of a disciple"can be rendered, one who has disciplined himself to learn. The secret of spiritual advancement is a willingness to be taught by God. We must open our heart and mind and spirit to Him. We must have a way and open the way for divine impressions to reach us. When we fancy that we know all we need to know, we become so set in our ideas that God finds it almost impossible to get anything different than we think across to us.

Unteachableness is a barrier to progress If a person will not learn what possibility has he of advancing? May God deliver us from our reluctance to accept instruction! To receive through whatever means, humbly and without hesitation, whatever He desires to teach us is how we prosper in the school of Christ.

[Far too many people just talk even when they have nothing of value to say. That is not wise and certainly not intelligent. Albert Einstein was the featured speaker at a dinner given at Swarthmore College. When it came time for him to speak, he astonished everyone by standing up and announcing, "I have nothing to say." Then he sat down.

A few moments later he stood up and added, "In case I have something to say, I will come back and say it." Six months later he sent a message to the president of the college: "Now I have something to say." Another dinner was held and he gave his speech.

The 3rd Servant Sermon teaches that obedient & faithful life is centered on obeying God’s Word. Through all the darkness & suffering the Servant holds to God’s trustworthiness. Then this Servant invites God’s disciples to trust God & walk in His Word.

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